> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.instantcampaign.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Create an ad campaign

> Build a Meta or Google Ads campaign in five steps (objective, budget, audience, creative and review), then publish it paused for review.

An ad campaign in InstantCampaign is one complete ad on one platform:

* **Meta**: a campaign, one ad set, one creative and one ad in your Meta ad account.
* **Google Ads**: a daily budget, one **Display** campaign, one ad group and one **responsive display ad** in your Google Ads account.

To run the same idea on both platforms, create two campaigns.

<Note>
  You need permission to edit campaigns to create one, and permission to **send** campaigns to publish it. Ad campaigns need the **Pro** or **Enterprise** plan and a connected ad account. See [Connect your ad accounts](/guides/ads/connect-ad-accounts).
</Note>

## Start a campaign

Go to **Advertising → Ad campaigns** and click **New campaign**. The editor has five steps: **Objective**, **Budget & schedule**, **Audience**, **Creative** and **Review**. Click **Next** to move on. Each step is checked before you can leave it.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Objective">
    * **Platform**: Meta or Google Ads. A platform you haven't connected shows "Not connected." You can't change the platform after the campaign has been saved.
    * **Campaign name**: for example "Spring sale — retargeting".
    * **Objective**: pick one (see the table below).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Budget & schedule">
    * **Budget type**: **Daily budget** or **Lifetime budget**. Google Ads campaigns always use a daily budget.
    * **Budget**: in your ad account's currency. The platforms need about 1.00 a day at least.
    * **Start**: leave it empty to start when you resume the campaign.
    * **End**: optional for a daily budget, and required for a lifetime budget. The end must be after the start.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Audience">
    * **Countries**: at least one, up to 25.
    * **Age & gender**: **Minimum age** and **Maximum age** (13 to 65; the default is 18 to 65), and **Gender** (**All**, **Men** or **Women**).
    * **Include audiences**: show the ad to people in these audiences. Leave it empty for broad targeting in the chosen countries.
    * **Exclude audiences**: keep people in these audiences from seeing the ad, such as existing customers.

    Only audiences on the campaign's platform are listed, and an audience can't be both included and excluded. With no audiences yet, the step links to **Audiences**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Creative">
    Write the ad and check the live **Preview**. The fields differ by platform (see below).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review">
    Check the summary, then click **Save & publish**, or **Save draft** to come back later.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Objectives

| Objective      | Meta                                                                                  | Google Ads                                                                       |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Awareness**  | Reach as many people as possible.                                                     | Maximises clicks on the Display network.                                         |
| **Traffic**    | Send people to a page on your site.                                                   | Maximises clicks on the Display network.                                         |
| **Engagement** | Likes, comments and shares on the ad.                                                 | Clicks on the ad across the Display network.                                     |
| **Leads**      | An instant form on Meta collects contact details. You need an **Instant form**.       | Optimises for conversions on your site. Needs conversion tracking in Google Ads. |
| **Sales**      | Optimises for purchases tracked by your **Meta pixel**. The ad account must have one. | Optimises for purchases tracked by Google Ads conversion tracking.               |

## Creative fields

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Meta">
    * **Facebook Page** (required): the Page the ad is published from.
    * **Primary text** (required): the main text above the image.
    * **Headline** and **Description**: optional.
    * **Destination URL** (required): where the ad links to.
    * **Call to action**: **Learn more**, **Shop now**, **Sign up**, **Subscribe**, **Book now**, **Contact us**, **Download**, **Get offer**, **Get quote**, **Apply now** or **No button**.
    * **Instant form**: Leads objective only. This is the Meta lead form the ad opens. To turn its submissions into contacts, set up [Lead capture](/guides/ads/lead-capture).
    * **Image**: a public image URL, or click **Choose image** to pick one from your File Manager. A 1.91:1 image works best in the feed. The image is uploaded to your ad account when you publish.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Google Ads">
    * **Business name** (required, up to 25 characters): printed on the ad.
    * **Headline** (required, up to 30 characters).
    * **Long headline** (required, up to 90 characters): used when there's room.
    * **Description** (required, up to 90 characters).
    * **Destination URL** (required).
    * **Call to action**: as for Meta. **No button** leaves the choice to Google.
    * **Image** (required): a public image URL or one from your File Manager. Google needs a landscape and a square version, and both are cut from this one image when you publish, so keep the important part in the centre.

    A counter under each text field shows how many characters are left.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Publish

**Save & publish** saves the campaign and creates it on the platform. You can also publish a saved draft later from its page or from the campaign list, with **Publish**. The confirmation reads "Publish to Meta?" or "Publish to Google Ads?".

<Note>
  Everything is created **paused**. The campaign appears as **Paused** here and in Ads Manager or Google Ads, so you can review it on the platform first. Nothing spends until you click **Resume**. See [Manage ad campaigns](/guides/ads/manage-campaigns).
</Note>

## Things to know

* **Currency.** Budgets and spend use your ad account's own currency, and each campaign is labelled with it after it is saved.
* **Dates on Meta** use the date and time you enter, in your browser's time zone.
* **Dates on Google Ads** are whole days. The campaign starts at the beginning of the start date and stops at the end of the end date, in your Google Ads account's time zone. The date is taken from the time you enter converted to UTC, so a late-evening time can land on the next day.
* **Age on Google Ads** works in Google's fixed brackets (18–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64, 65+). Brackets wholly outside your range are excluded. People whose age Google doesn't know are always included.
* **Reach on Google Ads** isn't reported for Display campaigns, so it shows 0.
* **Meta targeting stays as you set it.** Meta's automatic audience expansion (Advantage+ audience) is turned off, so the ad isn't shown outside your audiences.

<Note>
  Enter the budget in your ad account's currency, exactly as you'd type it in Ads Manager or Google Ads: `25` means \$25 on a USD account and ¥25 on a JPY account. Currencies without decimals, such as JPY or KRW, take whole numbers.
</Note>

<Warning>
  Google Ads only lets an account **target** Customer Match audiences once it meets Google's history and spend requirements. Until then, a publish with **Include audiences** fails with "Google does not allow this Google Ads account to target Customer Match audiences yet". Remove the included audiences and publish again. **Exclude audiences** still work.
</Warning>